Amateur hobby blog, about HeroClix and other topics of interest. I am NOT a journalist or professional writer. NOT an artist. Blue collar shlub with opinions.

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“Task Force X”

Saw the 5:30pm showing of “Suicide Squad”. Short answer: I liked it. Way, way more fun than “Batman v. Superman”. Caveat: I’m very forgiving of superhero genre movies.

More comments later, maybe tomorrow.

EDIT I:

As with “Man of Steel” and BvS, I end up liking the actors, really like certain “moments” (“character beats”), and certain scenes or exchanges of dialog between characters, and become really forgiving of some definite…. “choppiness”?…. of these movies overall.

For example, “best superhero movie of the year”? “Captain America: Civil War”. Smooth, like a fresh jar of Skippy. Juggles a lot of characters very well. Story? Cap is trying to save his best friend and war-buddy. Who happens to be a wanted assassin. Who gets framed for a crime he didn’t commit, and is being hunted. Cap is defying the authorities and the public to do so. Unknowingly doing exactly what the shadowy “big bad” who framed his friend wants him to do.

“Batman v. Superman”? I still can’t really say why they were fighting. I get the Lex Luther’s machinations to make them fight, his manipulation of B and S, although the fight still seems like it shouldn’t have happened.

“Suicide Squad”: Twisty, turny. Wonderful character beats. Basic plot? Essentially “Government’s own ‘unusual weapon of mass destruction’ gets ‘compromised’, Task Force X is activated to remove the threat, hopefully without killing each other in the process.”

Still, I didn’t buy at the end that the “Suicide Squad” thought of itself as a “family”, although I did buy that Deadshot and Colonel Flag did respect each other.

Loved Harley Quinn. Had to remind myself she’s a murderous monster (easier to do when she was sharing the screen with The Joker).

Will Smith’s Deadshot definitely came off as more of a “We mostly killed each other” kind of criminal underworld assassin. Hope Smith does appears again.

Rick Flag was not a Captain America-style “straight arrow,” even stating how he’s had to “bury a few of his own mistakes”.

All the actors really owned their characters. Wish they hadn’t made Slipknot so disposable, but you saw it coming by the way he was introduced.

EDIT II: Thinking….

“Captain America: The First Avenger” is the only “Marvel Cinematic Universe” movie I can think of that had two definite opposing sides with their own visions of “how the world should be run” clashing, spiced with some of the usual “someone’s sin(s) of the past come home to roost”. (Maybe GotG?)

Most of the others seem to be “enemy came within” plus the “sins/roost” thing.